Cognitive Dissonance at the BBC

Cognitive Dissonance: the uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously.

The BBC (Biased Broadcasting Corporation) is an expert at this, and trumpets "EU 'resolute' on climate targets" in its headline today (although now they've now modified it to read "EU 'holds firm' on climate goals"), when in fact nothing, and I mean nothing, could be further from the truth.

All of this is expertly deconstructed by Professor Philip Stott on Global Warming Politics. He juxtaposes the official statements with his imagined unofficial meanings, to hilarious effect:

Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi: “We don’t think this is the moment to push forward on our own like Don Quixote. Our businesses are in absolutely no position at the moment to absorb the costs of the regulations that have been proposed.”

Meaning: Pazzo! Mama Mia! There is more rubbish here than in Naples. Matto da legare! Morbo della mucca pazza has melted their brains. I’m not going to see our pasta industry go down the pan for this lot!

Enjoy - read it here.

P.S. Matto da legare is stark raving mad, and Morbo della mucca pazza is Mad Cow Disease, by the way!